MSI Press Blog

Happy Fourth of July, 2020! In celebration of this day, we present an excerpt from Joanna Romer's popular book, Helping the Disabled Veteran . Excerpt: Holidays The holidays may be a poignant time for your veteran, perhaps more than you realize. If he or she lost a friend in battle, or simply during the course of military service, your veteran may be reminded of that friendship with sadness during the holidays. Even though you’ve never met this friend, you should respect your veteran’s grief—the friendship may have been very close. Your veteran may feel guilty if unable to do Christmas shopping. If they are confined to a wheelchair, for instance. You can offer to help—either by buying the items he/she picks out or by setting your veteran up on the computer to do some online shopping. It goes without saying that lending a little extra cash during this time would be welcome. On the day of the holiday itself, don’t be surprised if your veteran wants to stay in his/he

Holidays   If you’re a newly bereaved parent of a deceased child and you haven’t encountered a major holiday yet—say Thanksgiving or Christmas, be prepared for a shock. The holidays can bring home the extent of your loss in a way that nothing else can. Having recently lost a child, you might not be thinking about the holiday or how it will affect you. This is a mistake. It is better to face it in advance and decide how you will handle the holiday. Will you decorate for Christmas as you’ve always done? Will you go to a relative’s house and try to get through the whole thing as quickly as possible? Or will you close up shop and absent yourself from the holiday completely, traveling to Cancun, Key West, or a neighborhood motel, with or without your spouse? Paulette Jarnagin lost her son Keith in a drowning accident six months before Christmas. Paulette, who admits to “always going overboard” at Christmas, didn’t want to celebrate the holiday that year, but her family and fri

I've been getting to know Tony, our new mail carrier. Though his day job takes up most of his energy, his passion is screenwriting, and he recently enrolled in a screenwriting course at the nearby community college. His ideas are beautiful, like a Pixar version of why bad things happen to good people. What he went through as a kid made him into a mystic, and he wants to offer hope for young people that are struggling. Tony and I originally connected because a Sports Illustrated had been mistakenly delivered to my house. I was on my way to walk it over to the neighbor’s house when I met up with him. Tony later told me he was afraid I was going to yell at him since that was how residents often approached. He was very surprised when I came up to him with an easygoing manner, and he wanted to know why I was like that. Now the fact that friendliness is an anomaly is something to think about in and of itself. But more importantly, we've got to stop yelling at the mailman! I know

  The following post is from Pat Young, co-author of Life after Losing a Child . The holidays conjure up visions of families enjoying the festive atmosphere of Christmas. But it’s not so festive for everyone. One woman I interviewed while working on a book lost her son a few months before Christmas. The family kept him with them during the holidays by putting his photograph under the Christmas tree.                 “We had him with us for Christmas,” the grieving mother said.                 Another family kept their son’s memory alive by including his beloved dog in festivities. The dog had acquired many mannerisms from its late companion. Even questionable “dog manners” like begging at the dinner table were accepted with a smile and fond memories of the boy who would slip treats to the dog while eating dinner.                 There is no easy way to erase the pain of loss, but especially during the holiday season, fond and happy memories can be shared and at least soften the pain.   

  It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's topic addresses a topic that is important at this time of year and one that is often a bane for publishers: holiday books and holiday book orders. Holiday books Scheduling is very important when it comes to publishing holiday books. Books for Christmas (or Chanukah), for example, should have been completed in ARC form no later than early May. That gives time to get the pre-publication reviews before the holiday (given the typical 6 months advance time needed for reviewers, a May ARC allows for a book to be on pre-order over the summer and released in early November, allowing time for ordering for Christmas (when mailing services

  The Christmas season has become a mixed set of emotions for us. My grandson was born Christmas Day 20 years ago -- extra annual joy! The brother of a young man we took for 6 years died Christmas eve this year of covid. This is the first year that our family is observing the holidays without our patriarch, Carl , and Murjan , our beloved cat. So, for sure, grief has wrapped itself around our holiday activities. Here, then, is an excerpt from Julie Potter's book, Harnessing the Power of Grief , that we have found insightful... Beginning to adjust You are not a stranger to this process. There are many times during your life when you have to adjust to and make your way in a new world: the first day of school, going away to college, getting a new job, marrying, moving to a new neighborhood, retiring and living in a new world with no colleagues and no 9-to-5 schedule, becoming ill or disabled at any age and living in a slower world with people surging on ahead of you, emigrating to a n

  Did you overeat during Chistmas (right after overeating on Halloween and Thanksgiving) and plan to do it again on New Year's Eve and Day? This time of year sure is fun (from the good food, happy food, and much food perspective), but it can bring pounds and regrets. So, below are some articles/posts with good (and perhaps surprising) reading on the topic: From HuffPost: The Toxic Phrase We Should Stop Saying around the Holidays The Point: We should go to the gym for health reasons, not with the singular intent to burn off calories  From Webmd: 9 Ways to Manage Binge Eating Disorder over the Holidays The point: Take control to not become the tail being wagged by the dog; while oriented toward binge eating disorder, most of the recommendations work for anyone who tends to eat just a tad too much at this time of year From MSI Press Blog: Recovering from Holiday Overeating: Overcoming the Tyranny of Day One The point: Dr. Christina Fisanick Greer, author of The Optimistic Food Addict

  This week, Jews around the world gathered to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, and are now turning to preparations for the rest of the fall holidays: Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, and Shemini Atzeret.  To say that the fall is busy for Jews would be an understatement, particularly for Jews who are adjusting to a new school year (or helping kids do the same).  Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. Instead of celebrating with fireworks and champagne toasts, Jews bring in the New Year with round loaves of challah, apples dipped in honey, and the sharp cry of the shofar (a ram’s horn that is blown in the month leading up to the holiday to “wake us up” to the new year and day of judgment ahead).  Although the mood of the “high holidays” Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are supposed to be serious and reflective, since we are focused on evaluating a year’s worth of behavior and our destiny for the year ahead, Rosh Hashanah tends to be a more light-hearted event for family and delicious food.  Yom Ki

  Excerpt from Everybody's Little Book of Everyday Prayers Introduction   This book is for you— whatever your religious affiliation—even if you have no religious affiliation at all. This book is for you, whether you’re a Protestant, Jew, or Catholic, a member of one of the many other religions of the world, or an unaffiliated believer, long away from the religion you were brought up in but still a believer in God and desirous of communicating with Him. This book is for you, whether you’re a devout and regular church or temple-goer or a person who hasn’t set foot in a house of worship for years but sees God in every field of flowers and every glorious sunrise—whether you are a person who, in a recent times of trouble or joy, is rediscovering a need to communicate with the Almighty or a person who is raising a small child and wants that child’s life to include a relationship with God, whether or not your child also attends formal worship services.             This is a book mad

  Passover and Easter   Arthur Yavelberg   author of the award-winning A Theology for the Rest of Us Best Indie Book Award Literary Titan Silver Award   People sometimes wonder about why the Jewish holiday of Passover often overlaps with the Christian celebration of Easter. There are many explanations for this—such as both are carryovers from pagan fertility rites having to do with the “rebirth” in spring. (Hence the use of “eggs” on the Passover seder plate and Easter egg hunts.) However, there are deeper possibilities.   Passover commemorates the Exodus of the Biblical Israelites from Egypt. Since God (not Moses) redeemed these slaves from bondage, it is often called a “Festival of Freedom.” While that is true, it overlooks that this freedom is essentially temporary. Once the Israelites escape and the Egyptian army is drowned in the Red Sea, they are brought to Mt. Sinai where they are given God’s Commandments—the well known Ten Commandments and, according to the Orthodox